“No, this is fine. Thanks”
“I checked the back door. I put a better strike plate on that one too.”
“Thanks.”
“You’re saying thanks an awful lot for a guy who still wants to kick my ass.”
In spite of himself, Theo felt a flicker of a smile. “Yeah, well.”
“I know it looks bad in there right now,” Cart said, “but I learned how to do floors. Did them in my mom’s house last month, so you get the benefit of all the mistakes she’s got to live with. If you don’t mind, I say we just rip out the rest of the plaster, reframe the walls, and hang sheet rock. It’ll be faster, better in the long run, and a hell of a lot easier to keep up.”
“No. I’ll figure something out.”
“Theo, pardon the redneck in me, but this part’s not your fucking choice. I’m doing the floor. I’m doing the walls. If you want plaster, say plaster. That’s about as much choice as you get.” Cart fiddled with the drill, removed the bit, and bent to replace everything in the rigger bags. “When it’s done, you can go back to hating my guts and calling me every kind of asshole you ever imagined.”
Lights swept across the porch, illuminating Cart for a moment: the hard lines of his face, the brass buttons on the Carhartt jacket, his hands. A car pulled into the driveway.
“Guess you’re getting priority treatment,” Cart said. “Normally, they wouldn’t send the detectives out this late.”
The man coming up the walk was middle aged, with a bushy mustache and huge glasses in thick, yellow plastic frames. The last time Theo had seen Al Lender, the detective had been walking into an abandoned apartment building to inspect the dead body that Theo and Auggie had found. Lender’s gaze swept from side to side, and when he came up onto the porch, he paused when he saw Cart.
“Officer Cartwright. Stopping by to lend a hand?”
“You know,” Cart said with a shrug. “Ian would’ve done it for me.”
Lender nodded; to Theo, he held out a hand and said, “Theo, I just wanted to tell you how sorry I am about Ian. Should’ve come sooner to tell you.” He held Theo’s gaze for an extra moment and said, “What seems to have happened here?”
“Come on in,” Theo said. “Although I’m not sure there’s much you can do. The patrol officers already checked for prints.”
“You want me to hang around?” Cart said.
Theo shook his head. He hesitated, then said, “Cart, thank you.”
“What’s the fucking good of being a fucking redneck if you can’t pull your fucking ivory tower friends out of the fucking shitter every once in a while?”
Theo was still trying to parse that sentence as Cart left. He led Lender inside, thinking about the best way to get to the gun upstairs without Lender suspecting, and glanced over his shoulder. He said, “Would you shut—”
The kick to the back of his leg set his knee on fire. He hit the floor hard, and then his hip went nuclear too. Theo had been in enough barroom brawls and worse fights, nastier fights, to already be thinking, already be reacting. He scrambled forward, trying to put space between him and Lender, already looking for a weapon.
The next kick caught him in the back of his head. It knocked him to the floor, and his face crunched against the boards. Blood filled his mouth. Theo pushed up, trying to get to his feet. A split lip was fucking penny stuff where he came from.
Before he could move, though, he felt a cold muzzle at the back of his head.
“Hello, Theo,” Lender said. “I thought it was time we had a talk.”
Theo spat blood onto the boards.
“Until now, I’ve been more or less satisfied dealing with Auggie. He’s eager to please, you know. Highly motivated. But my situation has changed. You did a very nice job finding Robert McDonald. Now I want you to find a flash drive that Robert was in possession of. It’s gone missing. As you’ve probably figured out, some dangerous people believe you have it. That’s why they ripped this shithole apart. They’re going to keep looking; I want you to find it first, Theo.”
“Fuck you.”
The barrel connected with the back of Theo’s head, and his world went white. He came back together by degrees, aware of the nylon-polymer muzzle jabbing up under his jaw, Lender’s knee on his back, Lender’s hand in his hair, yanking his head back.
“You stupid motherfucker,” Theo said; the words sounded bubbly through all the blood. “You don’t have any fucking idea. Shoot me. What the fuck do I care? And if you don’t kill me, I will fucking destroy you, I will—”
Lender shushed him, tugging on his hair, digging the muzzle into the side of his throat so Theo choked.
“Shush,” Lender said again. “Just listen. God, you’re every bit how Ian described you. I need you to pay very close attention right now, Theo. If you don’t find this flash drive for me, I will visit Auggie again, and he’ll need a double knee replacement. I’ll even mess up his pretty face. And if that doesn’t convince you, and you need further encouragement, I’ll pay a visit to Downing. Am I making myself clear?”
Theo arched his back, writhed, tried to twist free. He was going to kill this man, even if he got a bullet in the head doing it.
But Lender bore down with his knee, pinning him to the floor, and jabbed the gun harder into Theo’s throat. Theo gagged and choked again.
“Right now, son. Pull your shit together right fucking now. Tell me what you’re going to do.”
Theo’s throat hurt when he spoke; the words were ragged. “I’m going to find a flash drive.”
“And if you don’t?”
“You’re going to hurt Auggie.”
With a little clucking noise, Lender said, “No, Theo. I’m going to torture the shit out of that boy
